Dental practice wins Bendigo Business of the Year

Dental Innovations on Sternberg has won the coveted title of "Business of the Year" at the 2010 Powercor Australia Bendigo Business Excellence Awards held in late October. The practice also won "Best Service - Professional" and staff member Kelsea Fitzgerald was named "Apprentice of the Year".

"It's a great honour to be named Business of the Year," said practice principal Dr Graham Robertson. "We've strived at every level to create a practice with a difference that provides the highest standard of care and service to our patients. Winning both of these awards is the ultimate recognition of the efforts of our entire team and we are all very excited to have achieved this.

"We would like to thank the Rotary Club, the judges, Powercor, all the other sponsors and everyone else involved in the whole process that culminated in a very grand awards night."

Over 400 Bendigo business are judged in the annual awards based on nominations from customers in a range of categories.

Dr Robertson said that the practice received a letter in the mail one day saying they had been nominated and subsequently had to prepare a 20 page submission on why their business is different, its history, investment in the community and other aspects of its operation. They were then interviewed by the judging panel.

"We initially thought it was just great that someone had nominated us and recognised our efforts. We were very proud. Then as we progressed through the selection process and eventually made it to the finals, the whole practice was abuzz. Each level was more exciting for me and the entire staff."

Dr Robertson and his wife Lesley migrated from Scotland to Stawell in 1991, then moved to Bendigo in 2004. Dr Robertson worked at an established practice initially before building Dental Innovations on Sternberg from in 2008.

"The practice has been an amazing success. We started with 4 people and now we employ 23 people in Bendigo across two practices. We quickly became the biggest practice in town and we try to set a high standard for treatment and the practice overall. We've just installed an E4D system for example and are constantly updating to the latest technology.

"Winning Business of the Year is a very satisfying achievement and will inspire us all to continue to strive to be the best we can be."

Dental Innovations on Sternberg featured in the Surgery Design section of the May/June 2009 edition of Australasian Dental Practice.